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Full of contradictions
The professional Elite League is crazy expensive and full of contradictions but its ninth season has opened, says Stewart Roberts, editor of The Ice Hockey Annual.
Well, here we go again, the start of a brand new season of fun and games of British ice hockey. Against the odds - the top two teams, Sheffield and Cardiff, went bust in the off-season, Newcastle can't afford to compete any more and Edinburgh only barely made it to the end of the last campaign - the professional Elite League has returned for a ninth year.
The league is so full of contradictions, I truly don't know whether to chuckle or groan.
What are we to make of an organisation which even after all this time (and several liquidations) is still scared stiff of having fewer than ten imports on each club, even though the Brits have improved during the league's existence, and the costs of running a professional team - especially in these grim economic times - are now ludicrously high.
The league has tried to reduce their costs. But not, as you might expect, by having fewer overseas skaters but by skimping on their quality. Back in 2004-05, the league's first season, North American imports had to come from the third tier ECHL or above. Now the league's criteria say that university players are welcome.
For guys from the European leagues, their nation can play in Division 1, the world's second level. Previously, the rules called for players from elite nations only.
And here's a funny thing. The foreigners may not be as good as they were nine years ago but, guess what? - scarcely anybody's noticed. The league never breathes a word about these changes, they've been quietly introduced over a period of time.
By contrast, the standard of the Brits keeps going up. Exhibit A - the GB's men's team. Paul Thompson's squad have risen to 21st in the world rankings, the highest they've been since the league was created. The line-up is mostly home-grown and virtually all are from the Elite - and there were plenty more who only narrowly missed selection.
So isn't it time the balance between home-grown and imported players was changed? The problem is that local skaters can be just as expensive as overseas ones because they expect a living wage for playing/practicing five or six days a week. Most imports, on the other hand, are happy with a few hundred quid a week and a bed, plus the use of a car. Some are helped with places at nearby schools or universities to complete their studies.
Another problem facing the league is that they can't afford to be choosy about their membership. Only five of the founding clubs are still around - Nottingham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Coventry and Belfast. Hull and three of the four Scottish sides, Edinburgh, Fife and Dundee, can't really afford pro hockey and have joined reluctantly because, such is Britain's geography and the scarcity of rinks, there's no other league suitable for them. (The fourth Scottish team, Braehead Clan, is owned by a consortium headed by Neil Black of Nottingham Panthers. Mr B must be absolutely loaded - at the moment, anyway.)
This year's addition of Fife Flyers is, with great respect to Britain's oldest club, the league's biggest contradiction. The Flyers have already declared that they can't afford to ice more than seven imports, unless unexpectedly high crowds turn up at the Kirkcaldy rink.
And even this close to the start of the season, there was a question mark over whether or not the rink would have the essential protective Plexiglas surround.
The team moaning loudest about this is Nottingham Panthers. How contrary is that? Neil Black has been the cheer-leader for keeping the Elite in its high-spending format, refusing to accept that his team is one of only a couple of clubs that can truly afford to play in it.
Just like the teams in our other leagues, without a lucrative sponsorship* or TV monies, Elite sides have to rely on the number of fans coming through the doors and the depth of their owners' pockets.
Panthers, Belfast Giants and hopefully Sheffield Steelers, which each averaged over 3,000 fans a game last year, are the only clubs who can tick both those boxes. Two thousand turned up just to watch Nottingham practice last week! Most British clubs can only dream of this level of fan support.
The answer to the league's contradictions is an old one - compromise. And while the liquidations do little for their integrity, the cobbled together structure seems to be the only way for them to keep going, for now, anyhow.
The league's top scorer last season was American forward Jon Pelle, a Harvard University graduate who played with Cardiff Devils and completed his MBA at Cardiff Business School. Now with the Giants, he's a prime example of the sort of import the league needs to attract.
In a recent interview with prohockeynews.com, he said: "I play this game because it's fun and I knew that if I stayed in the UK I'd have a good time. I'm willing to play for less money if it means enjoying myself more."
As long as our professional league can keep coming up with imports like him, they'll survive, liquidations, contradictions and all.
* This week's news of a sponsor for the league hasn't changed this. If it had, then we media-types would have been invited to a slap-up lunch somewhere in central London. Ah, those were the days.
The new edition of The Ice Hockey Annual will be published early next month.
website: www.icehockeyannual.co.uk
The Ice Hockey Annual 2011-12 is available now to pre-order via BIH.
Guaranteeing you the cheapest price on the internet at £9.45 with free P&P.
To pre-order your Ice Hockey Annual please click: http://bit.ly/osSKGV
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- Adam Walker
- Alex Birch
- Andy Pierce
- Chris Gent
- Christopher Beal
- Craig Simpson
- Dave Simms
- Elliott Stanley
- Gareth Chalmers
- James Broughton
- James Gordon
- Katy Madgwick
- Luke Catterson
- Mark Briggs
- Mark Duell
- Mat Young
- Patrick Smyth
- Promotion
- Russ Morrell
- Seanna Murdock
- Stephen Dowson
- Stewart Roberts
- Tom Forster
- Vicki Smart
- William Lyon
